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The Pre-Midterm(s!) Week

October 4, 2013 by Jeanie Nguyen | 1 comment

If you ever consider visiting Harvard, don’t come when September transitions into October. I’ve never noticed this before – and maybe it’s just a coincidence this year – but every aspect of everyone’s life has recently magnified. These heightened responsibilities stem from upcoming midterms, extracurricular club/volunteering activities, job recruitment…and the list goes on forever. Once October hits, students can no longer deny that school has started and autumn is in full swing. Actually, maybe visit this time of year because it’s so freaking gorgeous with the leaves changing colors.

The view from my bathroom (on the 14th floor)

Classes are strangely picking up – meaning we’re still in the calm before the storm, but people are getting antsy because it’s very obvious that the storm is extremely imminent. I’m going to turn the other cheek with regards to this storm though and focus on the fun things in my life while I can.

Mather had a Magic Show! Mather is one of the twelve upperclassman houses – it’s known for it’s concrete high rise tower (19 floors!). Students live in The Yard (the heart of campus) their freshman year and move into one of the upperclassman houses for their remaining three years of undergrad – this is called the residential college system. Each upperclassman house has a wide range of house-spirit building activities. Think constant pep rallies. For example, some days will be marked as “community dinners” where only residents of the house are allowed to dine in the dining hall. Houses will also hold Stein Clubs, also known as Happy Hour, once every 2 weeks where there’s just a ton of free food and drinks along with great music — these are the best way to start your weekend relaxation! A personal goal before I graduate is to attend every house’s Stein Club 🙂

Fun fact: Most (all?) Harvard houses will be renovated in the next few years! We’re in the process of a long term renovation process which is really exciting because who doesn’t like the new small of architecture?? However, at the same time it’s pretty scary because I’m definitely going to come back to my 10 year reunion clueless of the new names to each building!

Mather Magic Show!

Back to my main point, Mather had a Magic Show! Joe Schwarz came and put on an intimate show for about 10 people. He talked about his nontraditional love for science. It was really exciting to not only see him perform tricks as well as explain them, but also hear about his surprising application of his scientific knowledge. At Harvard, there are a handful of paths that most students go down post-graduation: consulting, finance, med school and law school are the top ones that automatically come to mind. In the moment, students can start to feel like there are no other paths, so refreshing events like the Magic Show are very helpful to remind students that the world is bigger than what we think.

…which can also remind us that we should branch outside of the Harvard Bubble – it’s very common for students to hardly step foot off campus. I’m pretty guilty of being trapped in said bubble and that’s why when my sorority organized a group to fundraise and participate in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s about 4 miles down the river, I jumped on the opportunity! It was a great Sunday afternoon spent before the onset of midterms!

6 mile Walk to End Alzheimer’s route!

I’ll update in a few days about midterms…ugh

 

Seasonal Readings

December 8, 2012 by Jeanie Nguyen | 2 comments

The annual Harvard-Yale football game not only lifts our school spirits, but also flags the end of the semester. After this game quickly comes Thanksgiving, Reading Period and Finals Exam week. Then BAM, our grand prize of a month long winter break (J-term/January term) for successfully finishing another semester of college.

We are currently in the midst of Reading Period: seven days without official classes (although unofficial classes/review sessions/language classes usually take place during this week) where we can prep for our finals. This time of the year can be pretty stressful with multiple final papers and projects due at the end of Reading Period. Regardless of the stress level, I am constantly reminded that I should be grateful for this week – imagine if we had to accomplish all of our immense assignments on top of class! This is actually what most college students have to do.

When I first learned of Reading Period, I thought it’d be the chillest week ever – a week of catching up on my favorite television series and sleeeeeep. However, the relaxation has definitely never been this extreme although the week’s flexibility does allow for normal sleeping hours and longer meals with friends. Reading Period can easily get a bad rep due to the high levels of associated stress, but when I talk to my non-Harvard friends, at MIT and Californian universities, my love for Reading Period is automatically rekindled!

This fall semester, I have 4 papers due within this coming week and then 1 math final on the last day of finals. I’m feeling some pressure, but this hasn’t hindered my holiday cheer!

He may look small but sure knew how to work the dance floor!!!!!

Last weekend, PBHA (Phillips Brooks House Association) – our volunteer program umbrella – hosted an end-of-the-semester Holiday Party where there was tons of sugar (cookie decoration, gingerbread house-making, etc.), dancing (dance offs, limbo!), and Santa even made an appearance with presents for all! It was tons of fun seeing all the hard work we put in these term time programs culminate into some of the happiest faces on these kids! It’s also heart warming to see students take a few hours from their busy studying schedules to make joyous events like these happen, especially because they only come once a year!

The high holiday spirits definitely emanate off campus as well.

Boston Commons Park

In the middle of Boston Common, there’s a seasonal ice rink called Frog Pond. My friends and I rung in Reading Period with an ice skating celebration. The park is also beautifully decorated with holiday lights and an enormous tree (someone in the park told us the tree was imported internationally too!)

Some of us ice skated while others hung on for dear life…

What is a holiday season without delicious food??

Good thing that’s something I don’t have to answer since (I think) each individual upperclassman house (dorm) puts on a holiday feast. Each dining hall also puts up a well decorated Christmas tree and menorah. It’s like the school does everything possible to make this time of year less stressful and more cheerful!

All my roommates after dinner

My upperclassman house, Mather, had a wonderful dinner – some highlights were artichoke poppers, roast beef, apple stuffing, broccoli rabe, cheesecake, egg nog and mulled apple cider! YUM

Mather also has an annual game of Assassins since we’re not in class and usually studying around Mather. Students organize the entire game – this year, they passed out water guns (whereas last year, our provided weapons were nerf guns). We have 24 hours for each round and the end of the round comes with an emailed list of obituaries filled with (black) humor.

My favorite laugh from yesterday was reading these obituaries. Here’s my favorite:

 

Theresa & Jonathan

Both victims of the most casual of killers:

“Hey,
I killed Theresa and Jonathan yesterday.”

…as if this were the most natural thing in the world to send per email. Sends chills down my veteran spine. 
Theresa’s dying word was ” =( ” 
I was killed yesterday morning at the lab I work at. I thought I was safe being a good 15 minute walk from Mather but apparently my assassin was super dedicated and was waiting for me to come in for 40 minutes! Also uncool how her roommates are my co-workers…

Maybe it was a good thing I was killed during an early round so that I can work on my papers! AH

 

Miles to Go Before I Sleep…

December 7, 2012 by Reid | Permalink

Hello everyone!

It’s been a good amount of time since I last blogged. I have had a whirlwind few weeks, mostly packed tightly with extracurriculars but certainly very fun. Some important milestones were passed since I’ve last updated you all on my life, so here goes.

The first important event was The Opportunes’ Fall Jam with The Callbacks, my roommate Cynthia’s a cappella group, which took place only a week ago (wow, it seems like forever). I wasn’t very nervous for the jam, but it’s really important so I felt a lot of pressure going into it; we had ‘heck week’ leading up to our concert, which meant 4 hours of rehearsal a night instead of 6 a night, which is our schedule for ‘hell week.’ However, all of our work payed off wonderfully, as we had an incredible concert and rocked Sander’s Theater. If you’re interested, you can check out our videos on our newly designed webpage, found here. It took an all-nighter until 8:30am, but I did manage to finish editing the videos and designing our webpage to have them released simultaneously, which was an awesome feat to accomplish! I’m very proud of our group, and if any of you freshmen are reading this, come audition for us in the spring! We don’t call ourselves the Harvard Boy-Heavies for nothin’.

Fall Jam!

At our post-jam party, a lot of alums came down to Harvard and hung out with us, which was really fun. I hadn’t met them properly before, and was really excited to be able to make friends with people who were only connected to me via a cappella! Some of my friends weren’t able to make it out to our Fall Jam, but luckily our Spring Jam is March 9, and in preparation we’ve already started deliberating on songs for our new set. So exciting. Unfortunately for me, I just discovered yesterday that I have vocal nodules, a condition where the vocal cords become callused and inflamed, which means that I am going to have to take it very easy next semester. I am very bummed about that, so wish me good luck in my therapy and treatment.

Another important milestone was Grand Elections, where the new members of the Crimson, our newspaper, are elected. It’s a very secretive and very fun experience, so I can’t talk about it that much, but come and join the paper if you’re interested in knowing more! I had to leave early from The Crimson in order to get to Mather formal (one of the many upperclassmen house formals) which was at the Harvard Club of downtown Boston, and was a nice gig with The Nostalgics, my soul and Motown band. I was really tired, but we pulled through and had ourselves a blast.

Some Photo friends at H-Y…just imagine us at Grand Elections!

Tonight I’ll be going to Lowell Winter Formal with my friend Ned, and will certainly have an awesome time. This in itself is certainly a milestone, because last February we went to Freshman Formal together, and now’s the perfect opportunity to come full circle! I’ll keep you posted, but expect a great night on everyone’s part.

Ned and me last year…who knows what this year will bring?

Later in the weekend, I will be going to see my friend Kim perform in “Rent,” a show that’s playing at Oberon, a venue right near campus. She’s going to kill it, and I heard opening night was great yesterday! I also really need to start working on my final projects, as I leave for home in one week (wow, where did THAT come from) and have a lot of stuff to do before then. Next week I have my VES (art) project due, my Stats project due, my Anthropology paper due, and my final Stats exam; mostly I’m worried about Stats, as it’s definitely not my best subject, but I need to crack down this weekend and get to working on my other projects. Hmm…probably should have started those earlier, but I’ve been so busy ever since Thanksgiving break! Ah, well, I can push through.

Although this time of year is always stressful, I am really blessed to have such amazing friends. They supported me through my difficulties last year and will continue to support me through my upcoming recovery, and I know that I will always have them by my side, even when things get a bit exhausting. One thing’s for sure; these people will always be my friends.

Love and happiness,

Reid

 

I really love Harvard!

Mather Blather

October 21, 2012 by Jeanie Nguyen | Permalink

As a junior at the College, I live in the upperclassman house called “Mather,” also lovingly referred to as the concrete jungle.  We have a residential college system, where you live in The Yard – the heart of campus – during freshman year, then move into a House (dorm). Students remain in the same House – just different rooms – for their remaining time at Harvard (there’s also the option to transfer Houses though) so it’s very natural to gain tons of House pride and feel a strong sense of community. Even if you don’t know everyone in your House, you’ll definitely recognize faces. Mather has definitely become my home, meaning I think about my room (and roomies!) in Mather when I’m not on campus and homesick!

All my roommates from our first year in Mather – we don’t live in the same room this year, but we still call each other roomies <3

Housing Day, Spring 2012 – showing off our Mather spirit & swag

I spend quite a lot of time outside of Mather in different Houses – whether it’s psetting (the act of crushing problem sets with pure knowledge), catching meals or hanging out. I actually think I eat dinner more outside of Mather than in Mather! However, this week I’ve spent a lot of time in Mather. It’s been an awesome week of exciting events here!!

Mather Book Club

I definitely enjoy reading for fun! But I’ve had difficulty in “finding” time to read novels for pleasure and usually just spend hours procrastinating by reading random articles on my Twitter feed. This semester, I’m determined to find time for everything I want to do! I joined the Mather Book Club which meets monthly and I’ve really enjoyed it!

The Book Club is run by a student in Mather, supported by House Masters and Tutors, and definitely not limited to just students living in Mather House as all are welcome! We always discuss books over monkey bread and French pressed coffee – I would come without these incentives too though! 😉

For the month of September, we read Gary Shteyngart’s Super Sad True Love Story and discussed the cleverly narrated novel. In October, we read Thérèse Desqueyroux which has a new movie coming out soon! I’ve enjoyed both books and I really look forward to our November book: The Year of Living Biblically, especially because it’s a book I recommended.

I didn’t anticipate how much I would like these discussions. I’ve never been super enthusiastic about English classes, but only because it’s hard for me to appreciate the laborious and time consuming task of writing papers when I could slightly less eloquently express my ideas to someone verbally much faster. However in Book Club, talking and joking about the psyche of characters and their interactions is beyond intriguing because it can either remind you of someone you know or open up a whole new way of thinking and understanding people.

I’m going to take this opportunity to go ahead and advocate for the liberal arts system of education because I feel so lucky that I get to concentrate in the sciences with regards to classes, but also have a plethora of opportunities to immerse my free time in other fields of study as well. As nerdy as that sounded, it’s true!! I’d pick a pset over a paper any day, but have me psetting most nights in a week and I’d be more willing to flirt with papers.

Mather Healthcare Discussion My Facebook newsfeed full of politically charged status updates definitely confirms it’s election season!

Certain issues may be dividing the country, but this is my first (and only) presidential elections during my time at Harvard and I feel like it has created a unifying atmosphere – all televisions across campus were tuned to the debates!

Most college students are eligible to vote, yet choose not to. To counter this destructive apathy, active Harvard students have been creating this huge movement to push students to register to vote by having voting and registration information available at all the upperclassman Houses’ dining halls during meal times and utilizing TurboVote. There’s even a House-wide competition where the House with the highest number of students who have pledged to vote get a cash prize dedicated towards activities intended to promote House spirit (i.e. seasonal House formals & class outings).

Mather held an informational/discussion event where politically active students and affiliates with the Harvard Kennedy School (i.e. Alum & Professors) came (with cookies!) to the Senior Common Room. They oriented us by laying out the healthcare plans of both Obama and Romney. Then questions were proposed to the presenters as well as the audience. One of the best debated questions was whether the government should focus on making healthcare more affordable or more accessible. When the issue was first presented, I had a clear opinion; but as I listened to others’ rational thoughts, I wasn’t so sure anymore!

I thought it was an extremely well organized event. The turnout was pretty small (less than 20 people) which made the environment much more comfortable to express opinions and ask questions. I’m definitely not one of the most politically aware people, nor do I take classes geared towards these topics, so I’m glad there are many other opportunities to become knowledgeable!  Healthcare is such a broad category which affects everyone so I really appreciate Mather making an effort to help students understand the current situation.

I was running meeting to meeting Tuesday night with tons of homework assignments lurking around in my mind, but I’m really glad I made the decision to make time (read: sacrifice sleep) for this event. My next Spanish composition prompt asks me to write a letter to a politician so attending this healthcare discussion has catalyzed my ideas for my next essay! I love when things come full circle!!

Mather Faculty Dinner

Harvard hosts a Faculty Dinner every semester. This is an opportunity for students to invite a member of the teaching faculty – whether this be a professor, graduate student teaching fellow (TF), an adviser, etc. – for a more casual setting for lively conversation over delightful food. If your head is screaming AWKWARD, you can silence it by finding comfort in the fact that you can invite one faculty member with a group of students.

Freshman all share one dining hall: Annenberg, so freshmen and their invited faculty all congregate here for a marvelous dinner, after a reception in the basement of Annenberg also known as the Queen’s Head. The lines are usually ridiculously long but it gives you a chance to break the ice – or create more ice haha. Freshman fall, I invited my Admissions Officer and then my Expos 20 (Tales of Murder) preceptor in the spring.

Each upperclassman House holds their own Faculty Dinner each semester with an earlier reception in the Master’s House. Dinner is always pretty fancy as there are table cloths and people serve you – how exciting! If you choose not to participate, the House asks you to eat dinner in another House for the night. During my sophomore fall, I invited my advanced Neurobiology professor with 3 other students in Mather. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend in the spring when I was taking organic chemistry (orgo) and physics – 2 classes with time consuming labs!

This semester, I invited my Neurobiology Tutorial professor, Dr. Barak Caine. I’ll be his student for the entire year so I figured I’d try to get to know him better sooner rather than later. My friend in Mather is in the class with me so I reached out to her and we sent him a joint invitation. We had a great dinner without even one lull in conversation. He received his Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego (my hometown!) so we had lots to discuss and I even learned so many fascinating tidbits about my classmate 🙂 It was definitely one of those nights where I eat 2.5x my body weight and didn’t regret it one bit – in other words, it was definitely a great night.

Snaps to Mather!

Although my week was pretty sleep deprived, it set up a good weekend. Get excited for Head of the Charles in my next post!

Home Sweet Harvard

September 15, 2012 by Jeanie Nguyen | 4 comments

Two suitcases – one for summer clothes and one for winter clothes. One backpack with a laptop, toothbrush, and a passport.

This was my arsenal of protection for five countries in three months. I know I wasn’t exactly roughing it to the extreme, but it sure felt like it at times, especially when my bus company left me at the Peruvian-Bolivian border and my mess of sobbing tears triggered the sympathy of a different bus company to bring me into Bolivia…pretty much my favorite sob story from the summer.

At the age of 20, I’m beyond proud, honored, and lucky to say that I feel like an experienced world traveler. I know that passport photo headshot copies are as useful as eye drops and burn ointment to carry around with you. I know that I can go four days without showering and still be happy. I know that I can survive without a smartphone to Google Map me out of any bad situation.

It’s extremely comforting as well as empowering to discover some of my hidden capabilities. And I’m only slightly exaggerating when I say it feels just as great to be home at Harvard. Home sweet Harvard! 

The heart wants what it can’t get in a really sick and twisted way. I’ve wanted to travel and roam freely since I could string a grammatically correct sentence together, but there were low moments while traveling when I just wanted to be home and settled. I couldn’t wait to return to Mather (my upperclassman “house” or dorm) and have the luxuries of a dining hall where I would never eat potatoes again.

Sure, I may have returned to this:

College essentials

5 loads of laundry later…

But when your college roommates are as welcoming as this:

Welcome back/catch up session with the best friend and roomie!

Then your high spirits help you make your beautiful single into:

I’m excessive 🙁 but I’m working on it!

I’ll never take having a home base for granted ever again. It also helps to live in Mather – one of the twelve upperclassman houses at the undergraduate college – because our house motto is “Singles for Life,” meaning that each student is guaranteed a single room. I’ll admit that I’ve been very spoiled in my college housing lotteries since I’ve never had to bunk with anyone and because the singles in Mather are inside a bigger suite so you can control your degree of isolation for studying purposes!

There are seemingly endless perks concomitant to entering your third year of college – having a room triple the size of your sophomore room is just one of them. My other favorite elderly perk is my increased class elective freedom. Since I’ve completed several of my basic core classes such as physics and orgo (organic chemistry) for both my premed and Neurobiology concentration requirements, I’m now facing much more relaxed requirements with guidelines such as “one advanced Neurobiology class” with more than 20 choices to fulfill it. Having so many choices resulted in my craziest Shopping Week ever.

Shopping Week is referred to as the first week of every semester because students are free to walk in and out of any classes at any time during the week – we essentially shop and sample any classes that our hearts and minds desire. Although it can still be difficult to project if you’ll enjoy the class for the rest of the semester, Shopping Week takes part of the guessing factor out and allows students to make educated decisions when selecting classes. The week is also a lot of freedom that most college students don’t ever experience (my high school friends like to remind me how lucky I am) so I always make sure to try to appreciate the entire week!

“Study Card Day” marks the end of the first week of school which is the same as the end of Shopping Week. Students submit to the registrar Study Cards which list the classes they’re planning to enroll in for the semester and sometimes these cards require professor/adviser signatures depending on the course.

I had a lengthy shopping list of classes that sounded super interesting, had a great Q guide score (the Harvard version of ratemyprofessor.com), and had colorful recommendations from my older friends. Although this is a good problem to have, the choices layered the week with stress which is actually a topic that the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory, where I work as a research assistant, has discussed. The midst of stress can blur the bigger picture and make your week dreadful. When I had six classes competing for one slot – four of the six occurring simultaneously – I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable since I would be walking out of intriguing lecture classes the size of ~15 students in hopes that maybe another class would be even more engaging.

It wasn’t until I ran into a recently graduated sorority sister by surprise while crossing the streets of Cambridge that my attitude about being a class shopaholic changed. She more than willingly listened to me vent and reassured me. As we parted, she turned to reiterate that Shopping Week’s evil twin of chaos is always short-lived and worthwhile. All the diligent course sorting I’m doing now will make a better semester because my classes and workload will be customized to my interests. I instantly felt better about my situation and lingered around how I feel like my youth has passed but my wisdom hasn’t arrived yet.

What students see on my.harvard.edu

After a short yet long week of shopping and meetings with advisers, I’ve decided to take 4.5 classes. One of my courses counts as “half” a class because it only meets for 1.5 hours every week (3 hours is about the average) but I’ll be taking the class throughout the whole year. Even though it’s a year long course, it will only count as a full one semester course. This special class is my Neurobiology 95hfh tutorial on Dopamine. I was weary about taking a whole class on just one neurotransmitter, but the professor, S. Barak Caine, is beyond riveting! He’s so passionate about the topic and has a knack for transmitting that excitement onto his students. I was hooked after just one lecture and I’m really excited for our class on Monday! Neurobiology tutorials are capped at 12 students so it’s a great way to get to know a professor, especially since the classes really thrive on discussion. Throughout the year, we’ll be focusing on developing skills to critically read and understand scientific articles.

Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 50 – Literature and Medicine

This class double counts for a General Education requirement as well as for my secondary in Global Health and Health Policy. I’m a little nervous about the class because I’ll never consider English and Literature my thing, but the professor, Karen Thornber, is a phenomenal public speaker and is very aware that a 2 hour lecture can be difficult to sit through. I’ve only been to one lecture, but it seems like we’ll be attacking how literature throughout the ages has tried to capture illness and disease. I’m looking forward to further developing my writing skills!

Molecular and Cellular Biology 145 – Neurobiology of Perception and Decision Making

This marks my second course that counts as an advanced Neurobiology course and it was the golden course chosen because of my recent realization that I’m a closet economics person. I started working at the Harvard Decision Science Laboratory at the beginning of my sophomore year and therefore have been more exposed to economic professors and research topics ever since. Its always been a fascinating work environment because I hardly think of every facet of life in an economic viewpoint which motivated me to take this class so I can further dive into this thought process. The title of the class is pretty self-explanatory, but what excites me most is our final project which will mimic a grant proposal for a research topic of choice!

Mathematics 18 – Multivariable Calculus for Social Sciences

Math 18 is a brand new class this semester – well it has a brand new name and an upgraded structure! It use to be called Math 20 and it’s required for students on the Honors Economics track. It’s suppose to be like the Math 21 series, but instead of physics applications, we’ll be using economic models. I came across this class as I was looking into Math 19a (Modeling and Differential Equations for the Life Sciences), a Neurobiology concentration requirement, and shopped it just because I was curious. The professor, Meredith Hegg, is new to the university but teaches the class with such energy, encouragement, and enthusiasm that I would have felt stupid for missing a grand opportunity if I didn’t enroll in the class. Math 18 is only offered in the fall, whereas Math 19a is offered every semester, so I’ll definitely be taking Math 19a next semester. For now, I’m pretty happy with taking Math 18 just for fun, although the first three psets (problem sets) have been pretty tough and lengthy. It’s been a little rough because I’ve never taken an econ class so I don’t know what terms like substitutes and complements mean, but there’s tons of support for the class. Meredith Hegg has office hours three times a week and the two undergraduate course assistants also hold a multitude of office hours as well.

Spanish 61n – The Ethics of Business

I’ve had my eye on this course since last spring semester!! I wanted to skip Spanish 50 to take this class because I felt like I’ve had enough Spanish grammar review for a lifetime, but everything happens for a reason. This semester is the perfect semester to take this course because it focuses on businesses in Latin America which is where I spent the majority of my summer! It’s so fun to be able to relate my experiences in Peru and Bolivia – especially because 2 other students who participated in the same DRCLAS (David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies) program in Peru are also taking the class with me! This is my first Spanish class that is like a normal class, just conducted in Spanish and I love it!! The 1.5 hours go by too fast and I spend most of that time laughing. It’s also a nice change to only be talking about corn and potatoes instead of actually eating it 🙂

Yes, 3/4.5 of my classes deal with economics/business even though I’m definitely a Neurobiology concentrator. Yay for liberal arts education! As I said before, I’m still really refreshed and excited about this upcoming semester! I’m eager to do my assignments and have no trouble seeing the real life applications of my class lessons. Junior year is starting off with a blast and I wouldn’t change anything about it! Hopefully I can maintain this attitude until the end of finals…

Guest Blog: Some Thoughts and Feelings on House Life

July 24, 2012 by Office of Admissions | Permalink

Gabby Malatesta, History Concentrator in Mather House, Class of 2013

Since sophomore year I have lived in Mather House.   As a freshman, I was beyond excited about that for a number of reasons: I would have a single, it was on the river, the dining hall and food are awesome, etc.  But two years later, it’s safe to say the biggest reasons why I still get excited about Mather have changed quite a bit.  While the rooms, common spaces, and dining hall are all great, the people who I see everyday are why I sing its praises to mostly everyone I meet and why I dread the day I have to leave this place.

#1 – Hey, look at that, it’s Mather!

Mather House

Have you ever seen anything more beautiful?  Okay, so concrete may be an acquired taste, but when I walk into the courtyard after a long day, I can’t help but feel happy.  In my opinion, that feeling is exactly what living in a residential House is all about: having a home.  In a House, fellow students, tutors, the House Masters, administrators, and dining hall and House staff all are there for you—whether you need a recommendation, personal advice, or even an eye-patch for the coming weekend’s pirate-themed party.

#2 – The Dining Hall: My Second Room

Mather Dining Hall

Here, I’m in Mather’s dining hall.  In a House, the d-hall is a place for eating, studying, socializing, events, and late-night snacking, and it’s a safe bet at least one or two of those will be going on at any given time.  It’s rarely empty, and once 8:30 p.m. rolls around, you’re sure to see a lot of familiar faces at Brain Break.

Nothing is better than a two-hour dinner spent with friends or that feeling of solidarity that comes when you’re at a table full of Matherites writing papers and doing problem sets until midnight.

#3 – Housing Day

“Charge!  Mather House residents flock wildly in the Yard.”  That was the Gazette’s caption.  I’m the one with the scarf, and we had just finished “dorm-storming” Matthews.  Dorm-storming is when a hoard of upperclassmen run into freshmen rooms early in the morning to greet the ‘blocking group’ of freshman assigned to the house where they will live for their sophomore, junior, and senior years.

Housing Day!

Housing Day can be suspenseful for freshmen, but most upperclassmen consider it the best day of the year, with as crazy a lead-up as the day itself.  Most Houses put together a Housing Day video (check it out below) to show freshmen why their House is so sweet (not to do too much bragging here, but back in the day, Mather gave the world the first one ever).

Freshmen will be sure to see House mascots chilling with John Harvard or taking notes in an Ec lecture. For the rest of the day, freshmen wear their new shirts around the Yard and to classes, and then around dinner time the Houses welcome incoming residents with dinner, Masters’ receptions, tours, and social gatherings.

#4 – HoCo

As I mentioned earlier, I’m pretty active in House Life.  Since my sophomore year, I have held a position on Mather’s House Committee (HoCo); first, I was a Publicity Co-Chair and am now currently a Co-Chair.  HoCo is responsible for making their House the best place to live for all students, and HoCo hosts many big and small events and acts as the representative for their House to the House and College administration.  HoCo makes it possible for Matherites to enjoy such events as Housing Day, Formals, Happy Hours, study breaks, and barbecues ever year.

HoCos are responsible for a Winter and Spring Formal every year, and the Spring Formal is usually the last event of the year.  While I’ve had awesome extracurricular experience through my HoCo responsibilities, what I value most is the friendships I have gained.  Without HoCo, I would not have seen the sunrise while on a coffee run the morning of Housing Day, have yelled, “DP4UC,” for two weeks outside of the Science Center, or had hour-long Bananagrams breaks from papers at two in the morning—all with people I am lucky to call friends.

Me and most of our HoCo board at our 2011 Spring Formal

Me and most of our HoCo board at our 2011 Spring Formal

In truth, I never expected to love Mather as much as I do now.  In retrospect, I probably should have known.  You see, my dad lived in Mather when he was an undergrad, and because of this, I grew up knowing fun facts like the first House Master kept racehorses, or thanks to the skylights and the design of the roof, you could see rainbows on the ceiling of the d-hall after it rained.  Mather stayed with him well past Commencement, and I know that it will do the same for me too.  I am the person I am today because of the people I have met and the times I’ve had in Mather, and there’s nothing I would change about my House or the family I have found there.

Okay, I’m done talking about all of my Mather feelings.  I’ll leave you now with a little something from Madness.

 

Spring Festivities

April 18, 2012 by Jeanie Nguyen | 2 comments

There’s a line I say quite frequently that I wish I heard others vocalize as well: “We met at science camp.” I actually say it with a shy pause – definitely not because I’m slightly embarrassed or anything…it’s just for the dramatic effect!

I spent two of my high school summers at science camp: COSMOS (California State Summer School for Mathematics & Science) at the University of California Irvine and YSP (Young Scholar Program) at the University of California Davis. Whenever my peers question these summers, I naturally articulate that it was THE BEST SUMMER EVER as my eyes roll to the back of my head to replay all my cherished and hilarious memories. The chemistry and neuroscience classes/lectures that I attended, the hands-on research exposure and experiences, and most definitely the people I’ve met, all can explain my personality and interests, which is a huge reason why I put tremendous effort into maintaining my friendships from science camp.

Last semester at the epic annual Harvard-Yale football game, a friend from science camp – the only Yale student I know – reached out to me and offered to tour and host my friends and me during the weekend of the game. We all had so much fun with my friend showing us the local hot spots and agreed that this one weekend was too short. Therefore, this past weekend, the Yalie visited me for Yardfest! He’s never been to Harvard before and has been pretty committed to bashing it since he got waitlisted, so naturally, my goal was to change his opinion. My favorite quote of the weekend: “Harvard is so great! There’s a river and we can walk around at night.” I’m so glad that he not only felt safe roaming the streets of Cambridge, but also had a blast at Yardfest where students wildly danced to The Nostalgics (with Reid!), 3LAU, Das Racist, and The Cataracs. For two years now, Yardfest has pulled through to be an awesome Sunday evening and since the event ends before 10pm, there’s still time to study after!

Although New Haven Yalies may appreciate Harvard’s security, this week, I’ve become cognizant of not only how excited and committed Harvard students can get about the most random things, but also how much I love this enthusiasm!! If you follow us on Twitter (which you should!), I tweeted about an article about all the House Wars that have been arising – check out Caroline’s take on the wars! As a freshman last year, I wasn’t aware of these inter-house wars that are such a perk to House Life! I’m a proud Mather House resident, and us Matherites are led by a somewhat anonymous “General Mistie” (a spin off one of our house master’s names?).

If you’re a high school senior procrastinating, let me help you out by providing some HILARIOUS insight to the emails that have been sent out:

Read this Crimson article for relevant background info.

In the words of General Mistie:

Mather,

The war council has decreed its intent to defend Currier if Adams continues hostilities towards our Quad brethren. Note that we only act to protect our allies from harm, and will declare war if necessary:

“Decree to Save the Tree” (best document title ever…Currier’s Mascot is the Tree)

Mather House takes this opportunity to remind the warmongers of Adams House that we have long maintained a strategic alliance with Currier House. Our houses unite every year to promote peace and prosperity, setting an example for all Harvard houses to Increase Mather and Currier spirit.

Adams’ recent encroachment on the sovereignty of Currier is an unwise and rash decision, greatly underestimating the strength of Currier and its allies. Pforzheimer House has already declared its solidarity with Currier, reminiscent of the Pfoho-Adams War of 1999.

Adams would be wise to remember Mather’s actions in the Great House War of 2004, where we acted courageously in Adams defense against Kirkland. When Kirkland infringed upon Adams territory by stealing the Adams gong, Mather courageously stepped in to protect Adams against its stronger opponent. Without Mather Gorilla warfare, the gong may have never been recovered.

We will not be the house that stands by and watches its allies struggle alone. Mather calls on Adams to rescind its declaration of war by 11:59:59 P.M. Wednesday April 11th, 2012. If Adams does not comply or takes any hostile action against Currier or its allies, Mather will immediately declare war in solidarity with its Quad allies.

We urge Adams to reconsider their reckless decision and advise the citizens of Adams to implore their leaders to withdraw their declaration of war. After almost eight years of peace, Mather does not wish to enter hostilities with any house. But where there is tyranny, we will fight for the right to maintain housing independence.

Sincerely,
General Mistie

And to not play House favorites, I’ll also illuminate the participation of Cabot House:

Let it be known that on this day, the Tenth of April in the year Two Thousand and Twelve, the House of Cabot did officially enter into an accord with the House of Currier. We, the people of Cabot, are joining in defense of our ally, sturdy Currier, with the good Houses of Pforzheimer and Mather to denounce and oppose the acts of aggression taken by Adams House against our sister house, fair Currier.

Adams House’s declaration of war and illegitimate claim to the territories that rightfully belong to Currier House is an offense and provocation to all Houses. Following the senseless and terribly made Adams housing day video, Cabot residents did not succumb to provocation and instead let the people judge Adams. However, we can no longer stand idly by and watch Adams continue to commit these acts. We, the people of Cabot, will not stand for such injustices and must act to impede this infringement upon our Faust given and unalienable Rights (one of my personal favorite quotes of all time!), among these being Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. In the spirit of Quad solidarity and in support of the rights of all peoples of all Houses at Harvard to live freely and peacefully, the undersigned do declare that the people of Cabot have entered into a defensive alliance with the House of Currier and will be at war with the House of Adams if any acts of aggression are made.

Until the time at which Adams publically recognizes its misdeeds and renounces its actions, Cabot House will maintain its hostile relations to Adams. Let it be known to the Harvard body that Cabot House, the Heart of the Quad, will not stand for houses that act dishonorably. Quarter will not be provided to those who wish harm against our brothers and our sisters.

Lastly as a consequence for Adams continued dishonorable acts of aggression and vitriol, Adams house residents will be held to Cabot House dining hall restrictions, whereby Adams house residents will not be allowed to eat on Tuesdays from 1:30 PM until 2:00 PM. Let this be a lesson to all who transgress against such peaceful houses as Currier.

Semper Cor,

Cabot House

The technical, sophisticated language, the historical references, and just the overall passive aggressive tone makes me want to read multiple textbooks on these House Wars! I’ll always LOVE the intensity that Harvard students bring towards not only their academics, but also extrapolating ridiculous jokes.

This type of enthusiasm will definitely carry over to this weekend as we welcome the newly admitted undergraduate class during Visitas (formerly known as Pre-Frosh Weekend)!! We’re all so excited to see you…looking lost, confused, and holding a crimson folder with a dandy map inside! Be ready for free swag! The weather is for sure welcoming as I just had my first class outside today on the steps of Memorial Church!

When you sit on Mem Church steps, you're overlooking Tercentenary Theatre...that's Widener Library straight ahead!

Boston’s Pleasures

March 7, 2012 by Jeanie Nguyen | Permalink

Good thing Yale never engulfed Vassar because then I’d have to dislike (understatement) Vassar through association.

This past weekend, my two friends from Vassar kicked off their Spring Break with a Harvard visit! It was my first time hosting people sophomore year, but my itinerary hardly changed. As a freshman, I hosted a ton of prefrosh (prospective/accepted students) from random kids the Admissions Office introduced me to, all the way to close friends from science camp. In great efforts to sway them in the direction of Harvard, I showed them around campus, forced tourist pictures in front of the John Harvard Statue, and even broke out of the Harvard Bubble with a mini tour of Boston.

Busy, busy! Just let me be ubiquitous please!

Showing people around my favorite places in Cambridge is easy (Science Center, Annenberg, Berryline, etc.) but trying to appear as the master of Boston proved to be more difficult and included interviewing friends from the area as well as a ton of Googling! One of my favorite Harvard characteristics is how campus life feels like a harmonious mesh of urban and suburban culture. It’s a shame that most students’ hectic schedules prevent us from taking advantage of Boston, but I definitely use every hosting opportunity to exploit the city’s pleasures!

First stop: the waterfront. When I think of Boston, I never think of water. Yet, I’m surrounded by the beautiful harbor and Charles River constantly. The harbor is ~500 feet from the T (subway stop) and always calm and peaceful. My friends and I lucked out because the sky was gorgeous although it was still SO cold (California girl speaking here).

Boston Harbor at sunset

From the harbor, it’s just a short walking distance from Faneuil Hall – a great place to people-watch, shop, eat and even see local street performers!

Faneuil Hall

I like to end the tour with a big bang: Mike’s Pastries. This place is legen…wait for it…dary, LEGENDARY. They have the best cannolis I’ve ever eaten and their usual out-the-door line says enough. Even though I hype this place up so much in my head, it never disappoints!! The crispy and flaky texture of the shell which envelops a creamy, yet light ricotta cheese is unparalleled in this and any other dimension. Seriously.

Mike's Pastries in the North End of Boston

For centuries, people have been repeating one word three times: location, location, location! I’ve finally figured out the reasons behind their redundancy – the need for tremendous emphasis! Harvard and its unique and generous opportunities are beyond both phenomenal and amazing; I could type about this forever, but since I still have a pset and a midterm hanging over my head, I’ll just illuminate that one of the more admirable characteristics of Harvard University is its location. Wedged in Cambridge among other top universities as well as successful companies, Harvard fosters a delightfully diverse environment students can thrive on.

My current environment is all the Housing Day hype! Tomorrow is Housing Day!! Basically,

Pfoho's Polar Bear studiously taking notes

freshmen are getting sorted into various upperclassmen houses and as upperclassmen, it’s our duty to make it known that our respective house is the best. We strive to conquer this endeavor by wearing our house mascots everywhere – and yes, this includes lecture – as well as releasing housing day videos!

 

Check out Mather’s official video for Housing Day 2012, a spin off of the hit sensation taking over Harvard campus by storm: [kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/a-dt24CmjY0″ width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

 

May all current and future freshmen win the Housing Day lottery with acceptance into Mather!

 

 

 

Realizing How Smart You Are Not

February 29, 2012 by Jeanie Nguyen | 2 comments

Last week, I had a depressing blog about my experiences with the (unavoidable?) demon popularly termed Sophomore Slump. BUT! I’m back a week later to uplift your spirits, happily reporting that this week has taken a turn back to happy norms – or as happy as possible in the gloomy presence of midterms and deadlines. Although the workload conditions haven’t altered much, the difference is that I’m not hating existence and my professors are once again able to heighten my intrigue with binary numbers and Aspartic catalysts, can I get a WOOT WOOT?

I pinpointed the root of my slumpish nature as my anxiety revolving around my summer plans and the big possibility of not being immersed in the love of the people I spent my first 18 years of life with; the alternative would be a cultural and/or scientific immersion. So the moral of the story is: I’m a brat. Clearly, I don’t have much to say on this topic because it happens so rarely ….… but having rough weeks is actually a great experience because I wouldn’t appreciate the good as much if it were good all the time.

There were two prominent things that helped me cope with my disaster week – one of them being my upperclassman house, Mather! (You can’t say it without an exclamation mark!) As I’ve said in previous posts, I’ve been feeling pretty stagnant with regards to my Spanish learning curve which has catalyzed my desire to study abroad. But since I’m a 20 year old brat who still gets homesick, I’d never be able to stick it out as a foreigner for a semester, so I’d ideally like to go somewhere this summer where I can think, speak, live, breathe and blink Spanish. My resident tutor (freshmen here call it proctor, but it’s more widely known as RA: Resident Adviser, basically someone older/wiser who lives in the dorm and repels chaos) and current Spanish 50 class TF (Teaching Fellow) holds a “Spanish Table” every Wednesday during dinner time and last Wednesday was my first (but definitely not last) partake. Spanish Table gives students a chance to have a meal over Spanish conversation. All levels are welcomed and encouraged. The atmosphere is really chill and not intimidating at all! Thinking and speaking Spanish outside of the classroom, in a casual setting, really refueled my excitement about the possibilities of going abroad! Southern California, I’ll thank you endlessly for literally being one of the most influential factors for shaping who I am – from the way I dress, think and speak – but I’ll be okay if we don’t see much of each other this summer.

Studying at a college so far away from home and with seemingly endless possibilities has really made me feel like a globalized person – or maybe just a country-ized person? I’ll earn the term “globalized” if I do indeed go abroad this summer (I’m typing with my fingers crossed here). Harvard offers a plethora of opportunities I never thought existed and recently, its international opportunities have really caught my eye. Everything from Harvard offered programs to non-Harvard programs (campus organizations like OCS: Office of Career Services will work with you to apply and even transfer credit!) to professors who offer to connect you with organizations such as WHO: World Health Organization (my Bioethics professor, Dr. Daniel Wikler, offered to do so!) is just so extraordinarily unbelievable that I can’t wrap half my mind around it. Living and thriving in an environment with massive opportunity, filled with driven people is truly a humbling experience, which brings me back to the second thing that helped me during my disaster week: talking with my best friend from home.

It’s strange how, for me at least, the beginning of college came concomitant with living in a split dimension: your high school life vs. your college life. It’s easy to get caught up in your busy college life, but during sophomore slump weeks, you just want to escape and I accomplished that by catching up with my besties from middle/high school.

I’m pretty confident when I claim that the Sophomore Slump has been a nationwide epidemic because a handful of both friends from home and Harvard have had rough weeks recently. (I partially blame pre-Spring Break Fever) So my best friend from high school, Emily, and I were retrospectively examining our lives (some pretty profound stuff if I dare say so myself) and she mentioned how college is an incredibly humbling experience in the realm of grades which help you realize how smart you are not. I wholeheartedly agreed as I thought about all my premed classes and how students legitimately earn A’s without the curve – snaps AND kudos to everyone because one form of encouragement wouldn’t be enough. This makes it really easy for the majority of students to feel stupid and unworthy, but I’d like to point out that these two things are mutually exclusive. I’m not sure if that makes things better, BUT at least it’s true! I’d like to remedy this situation by telling myself (and you!) that college isn’t all about the grades – it’s about the experiences too. When I look back at college, I won’t remember the 100% I got on my organic chemistry final (not based on a true story), but what will indeed stand out is that time my roommates and I watched scary movie trailers all night for no reason.

My take-home message would be to relax! I feel like 149% of the prospective students I come into contact with (their parents representing the extra 49%) expect that Harvard students are the definition of perfection and that our records/transcripts/etc. should have their own exhibition in the Smithsonian, BUT this is so wrong! Your imperfections shape you just as much as your more admirable qualities and admissions officers realize that you, buddy, are a package deal. Harvard students have their fair share of imperfections and rough weeks – and that’s perfectly fine.

 

Preemptively striking, Housing Day – the epic day that freshmen find out which upperclassmen house they’ll be residing in for their remaining years as an undergraduate – is in just one week! See for yourself why Mather! can’t be said, but only exclaimed!
[kml_flashembed movie=”http://www.youtube.com/v/klZ9yDPxH_k” width=”425″ height=”350″ wmode=”transparent” /]

*props to Scott for helping me share Mather! Love

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